Updated Slashdot Advertising Policy 335
In response to increased advertiser demand, we have decided that we will post one story
a day paid for directly by our advertisers. These paid "Slashvertisements" will appear daily amidst the normal stories you read here. Our first Slashvertisement
is for our sister site, ThinkGeek ,
stuff for smart masses. From Linus' Autobiography
to
42" Plasma Screens and Caffeine Products Galore, ThinkGeek has everything you need, except love. But enough of their gift certificates could bribe your way to that too! And check out
their current exciting specials!. Also at the request of our advertisers, anonymous posting has been disabled. If you
are interested in reaching quality demographics using Slashvertisements for your company, or just have
questions about the new ad policy, email Hemos.
First Slashvertisement! (by Microsoft) (Score:5, Funny)
An important factor in Linux' cost is its maintenance. Linux requires a *lot* of maintenance, work doable only by the relatively few high-paid Linux administrators that put themselves - of course willingly - at a great place in the market. Linux seems to be needing maintenance continuously, to keep it from breaking down.
Add to this the cost of loss of data. Linux' native file system, EXT2FS, is known to lose data like a firehose spouts water when the file system isn't unmounted properly. Other unix file systems are much more tolerant towards unexpected crashes. An example is the FreeBSD file system, which with soft updates enabled, performance-wise blows EXT2FS out of the water, and doesn't have the negative drawback of extreme data loss in case of a system breakdown.
According to Linux advocates, an alternative to EXT2FS would be ReiserFS. Unfortunately, ReiserFS is still in beta stage. This means it is not intended for production use (although according to many Linux advocates this shouldn't be a problem, which makes me wonder how (little) valuable they find your data).
The other proposed 'solution', EXT3FS, is nothing more than an ugly hack to put journaling into the file system. All the drawbacks of the ancient EXT2FS file system remain in EXT3FS, for the sake of 'forward- and backward compatibility'. This is interesting, considering that the DOS heritage in the Windows 9x/ME series was considered a very bad thing by the Linux community, even though it provided what could be called one of the best examples of compatibility, ever. When it's about Linux, compatibility constraints don't seem to be that much of a problem for Linux advocates.
Back to Linux' cost. Factor in also the fact that crashes happen much more often on Linux than on other unices. On other unices, crashes usually are caused by external sources like power outages. Crashes in Linux are a regular thing, and nobody seems to know what causes them, internally. Linux advocates try to hide this fact by denying crashes ever happen. Instead, they have frequent "hardware problems".
The steep learning curve compared to about any other operating system out there is a major factor in Linux' cost. The system is a mix of features from all kinds of unices, but not one of them is implemented right. A Linux user has to live with badly coded tools which have low performance, mangle data seemingly at random and are not in line with their specification. On top of that a lot of them spit out the most childish and unprofessional messages, indicating that they were created by 14-year olds with too much time, no talent and a bad attitude.
I could go on and on and on, but the conclusion is clear. Linux is not an option for any one who seeks a professional OS with high performance, scalability, stability, adherence to standards, etc.
WHAT THE FUCK? (Score:5, Funny)
Part of the beauty of slashdot is the ability to post your view without getting lambasted for it. I'm not a 'fp!' or 'you're a retard, Taco' kind of AC when I do, but sometimes I think things need to be said without my name attached.
Oh, and I guess you can't bash corporations anymore like you did. What's next, eliminating any poster who isn't in keeping with the various advertisers? God, shut slashdot down before subjecting it to this.
at least you can tell what the infomercials are... (Score:2, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Slashvertisements... will they be flagged as su (Score:5, Funny)
You've shown how this wouldn't matter anyway. .
Happy 4/1. :)
Re:If this isn't april fools... (Score:0, Funny)
Was it that line that gave it away?
The last castle has fallen (Score:5, Funny)
Well, it was a good ride while it lasted.
Thank God (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, uh, April 1st? Nevermind.
Yeah, right (Score:3, Funny)
The question will be, how many poor suckers will swallow the bait
Stuart.
Re:WHAT THE FUCK? (Score:4, Funny)
What are the odds?
now this would have been funny if... (Score:5, Funny)
Ahh, such a wonderful day! (Score:5, Funny)
I do have to feel sorry for Hemos, though: hopefully his spam filter is on full-blast to catch the flak from this story. Wonder how he's going to pay CmdrTaco back? Perhaps with a story about selling Karma points with CmdrTaco's email address as the contact?
That's not all! (Score:4, Funny)
I'm amused (Score:5, Funny)
1. The anonymous button really is missing.
2. CmdrTaco posted Hemos' email so that's where all the flames will go.
3. Anticipating how Hemos will get back @ CmdrTaco. (Note to Hemos: don't disappoint your loyal fans!)
This is a new policy? (Score:5, Funny)
Poor Hemos... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Enough with the April Fools already (Score:5, Funny)
Stop... no.... (Score:4, Funny)
day of the year!
With geeks belly-aching
and everyone telling you
"a-hundred to one!"
It's the worst Slash-dot
day of the year!
There'll crapping and trolling
With dumb jokes a-flowing
And avian-I-P!
With a thousand and one posts
Reminding our hosts
It's 'oh four 'oh one!
It's the worst Slash-dot
Day of the year!
You'll think we're in hell
When you can't really tell
You gulliable nerd!
It's the worst Slash-dot
Day of the year!
Full Disclosure (Score:1, Funny)
I kind of like the idea of purchasing the slashdot effect. For the load testing you by a front page story from
Cheers
Mike
Re:No love (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That's not all! (Score:2, Funny)
Easier e-mail reaping... Great... (Score:2, Funny)
Giving advertisers an easy way to gather email addresses from their stories really and truly sucks rocks. Way to go.
*buckle*
Dave
Re:WHAT THE FUCK? (Score:3, Funny)
Slashvertisements - An Unmitigated success! (Score:5, Funny)
from the tightening-our-belts dept.
Well, folks, it started as an April fools joke, but we got such a positive response by companies such as Microsoft, eeger to spread FUD [com.com] throughout the slashdot community, that we have decided to implement this new advertising strategy imediately. Thank you for your cooperation. Any converns should be addressed to me directly.
--CmdrTaco
Posted By an Anonymous Coward (Score:3, Funny)
More april 1st crap (Score:2, Funny)
I visited The Open Directory Project [dmoz.org] , which had Microsoft pasted everywhere and a notice that it had changed name to The Microsoft Directory Project and Gates Open Directory (GOD).
My first thought was "Hey, all those hours I've done for free and now Gates will get rich on it".
It even has a clippy (or what ever it is that the annoying paperclip from the office apps is called).
It's going to happen eventually... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Ahh, such a wonderful day! (Score:3, Funny)
No Love? (Score:5, Funny)
Does that mean they've stopped selling "Sandra: The tech support doll"?
Re:Come one come all! (Score:5, Funny)
And if you become our sponsor right now you'll get this fabulous one time only special bonus, auto-unmoddable-fp's for a month!!!
Yes, come to Slashdotland and memebomb the geeks!
Slashdot: Stuff for sale. Stuff that's modded.
Re:The last castle has fallen (Score:3, Funny)
No love? (Score:3, Funny)
Thus spake Paul [gospelcom.net]:
There you go...
Re:WHAT THE FUCK? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yeah, right (Score:2, Funny)
Re:at least you can tell what the infomercials are (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No Love? (Score:2, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:2, Funny)
Re:No Love? (Score:3, Funny)
Oh please oh please oh please (Score:4, Funny)
mod minus one
for you this time --
no sense of rhythm
and no sense of rhyme
Oh wait, I just posted to this thread, never mind.
Not entirely bad, but not good either (Score:4, Funny)
I have to say, I'm not going to miss the anonymous cowards. The only thing that troubles me, though, is that they are not being banned to make slashdot better. They are being banned because the advertisers want to see - probably - who is saying what, so they can market to them better.
Are the new changes going to keep me from reading slashdot? No, of course not - but I can't avoid thinking we're losing a little bit of specialness here.
One last thought: if the advertisers are paying to post stories, might they also pay to keep stories about why their products are bad from being posted? And will Taco say no to that?